My name is Elyse Brightman and this is my last electives course for the MSES program at GMC. Right now I live in South Dakota, but am originally from Massachusetts. I’ve lived here for a little over three years now and am still adjusting to the changes from moving from the east coast to the Midwest. I’m excited for this course and believe it can help me find some of the hidden beauty of this part of the country and to get past the landscape of row crops. I enjoy taking pictures and would like to try it more on my free time rather than just for work purposes. My undergraduate degree is in journalism and is a big part of my everyday job, but I never took a photography class and I'm looking forward to what this class will offer.

My camera is a Canon D7 Mark II which I use almost exclusively for work purposed. I am the sports editor at the local newspaper and use the camera quite a bit, mostly for action shots at sporting events. It has served me well, but I almost never change the settings and am looking forward to exploring all the additional features my camera has to offer. It is a very nice camera that was partially gifted to me a few years ago, but I would like to be able to use more of its potential. I have a few accessories that I rarely, if ever use, like a tri-pod, telescopic lens and different lens filters.